Beet-topper.



J. A. WEAVER.

BEET TOPPER.

APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 7, 1912.

Lm@ Patented 001;.14,1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

J. A. WEAVER.

BEET TOPPER.

APPLIUATION FILED AUG. 7, 1912.

l I Patented Oct. 14, 1913 2 SHEETS-SHBET 2.

thI

lli',

BEETTQPELH.

spaaractie or ite-iene raient.

i Application flied August 7, i932. Serial ilo. H3312.

To all whom t may concern.' Y.

Be it known that T, JOHN A. WnAvnR,.c1ti zen of the United States, residino' at Greeley, county of Weld, and 'State of:D Colorado, have invented certain new and useful lmprovements in Beet-Toppers; and l do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and. to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

ll/ly invention relates to improvements in beet toppers, my object being to provide a construction which shall automatically regulate the position of the knife when performing the beet-topping function sof that the tops shall be removed in any predetermined plane below the shoulder of t )e beet. This is a very important feature. In many machines heretofore proposed for this purpose, the toppin functlon 1s eriormed whilethe beet is in t e ground, w ich has been found to be impractical, for the reason that the beets extend above the surface of the ground varying distances, which makes it impossible to properly regulate the knife to perform the toppmg function in a uniform plane below the shoulder ot the beet.

ln connection with my improved beettopping mechanism it is essential that the beets be uprooted and carried to the knife in such a manner that the shoulder of the beet is exposed to the knife. l prefer to employ the mechanism set forth in my previous application, Serial No. 704,361, led June 18, 1912. In this construction, which is illustratedl in the drawings, the beets are rst uprooted and carried upwardly by the uprootin mechanism until they are in position to e engaged by two endless conveyers, the upper conveyor consisting of two endless belts whose innermost runs grasp the tops of the beets, while their bodies are-acted u on by a lower conveyor equipped with iiig ts for the purpose, the said flights acting on the beets in opposition to the engagement of the knife and odering the necessary resistance to allow the knife to properly perform the topping function.

In order t at the beet may be resented to the knife so that the latter sha 1 remove the top in a uniform plane below the shoulder, T employ two rods which are pivotally connected with the frame of the structure at their lower extremities, the said rods being ada ted to engage the shoulders of the beets as tiey approach the knife. The upper extremities' of the rods are connected with keepers which are vertically adjustable, the keepers being arranged to raise and lower the knife as the rods are oscillated, the rods being so arranged that they engage the shoulder of the beet. on opposite sides of the top whereby the rodsl are lifted as the beet is carried along by the two conveyors. The keepers which support the knife are originally adjusted to hold the knife in the desire position with reference to the rods. ln other words the keepers are adjusted to support the knife as -far below the rods as it is desired to remove the top of the beet below the shoulder of the latter. lt will thus be seen that the topping by the use of this construction may be accurately and automatically accomplished since the rods bear upon the shoulder of the beet and the knife is supported below the rods, the keepers loeing lifted as the shoulders of the beets en- @a e the rods during their upward travel under the intluence of the two conveI ers.

It is important that an apparatus e emf, ployed, in connection with my improved topper, of such character that the tops of the beets shall be supported above the shoulder and out of the plane of the knife, in order to prevent possible clogging of the knife due to the interference of the tops. My improved construction set forth in my aforesaid pplication is specially adapted for use wi the automatic topping mechanism, since the endless belts support the tops or foilage of the beets in the desired manner.

Having briey outlined my im roved construction, l will proceed to descri e the same in detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, in which 1s illustrated an embodiment thereof.

ln this drawing z--Fi ure 1 is a central vertical section of a beet arvester construction suitable for use with my improved topping mechanism, the latter being shown 1n end elevation. Fi 2 is a top plan View of the upper art o the machine, or a v1ew looking in he direction of arrow 2, Fig. 1. Fier. S is a section taken on the line 3 3,

Fig. 2, viewed in the direction of the arrows,

-work of a beet harvester, the said framework being mounted upon front and rear axles 6 and 7, the latter being supported by front and rear ground wheels 8 and 9. Supported upon the front part of this frame work are diggers, or uprooting means7 consisting of two plows 10, one only being disclosed in the drawing. rlhese plows are supported on a frame 12 vwhich is vertically adjustable by means of a screw 13 threaded in a nut 14 suitably mounted on the framework of the struct-ure. Two endless belts 16 are arranged to grasp the tops of the beets as they leave the plows, devices 15 being arranged on opposite sides of the "beets for lifting the foliage above the shoulders of the beets kand holding the foliage in proper position to be engaged by the said belts as they leave the uprooting mechanism. These belts engage rollersv 17 at their lower extremities and pulleys 18 at their upper extremities,

the rollers and pulleys being journaled in a U-shaped frame-work 19 composed of parallel side members 20 .connected at their upper extremities by a transverse member 2. The belts occupy an inclined position, the supporting frame 19 having its forward extremity lowermost and gradually rising as it extends rearwardly. rllhe inner runs 21 of the belts are acted on by suitable devices, as rollers 22, which give the said runs the necessary resistance to causethem to tightly grasp the foliage as the beets are carried upwardly.

vArranged below the belt .conveyer is a cham conveyer 23, the same being mounted on sprocket wheels 24 and 25 carried by shafts 26 and. 27. rlhis chain conveyer is equlpped with flights 28 which act upon the lower parts of the beets whereby the belt conveyers are aided in carrying the beets upwardly to the knife 29, which is supported in a plane between the two conveyers.

These conveyers are operated from the rear axle of the machine, the latter being equipped with a gear 30 meshing with a gear 31 fast on a shaft 32 carrying a bevel gear 33 meshing with a smaller gear 34 ,fast on va shaft 35 whose upper extremity is equipped with a gear 36 meshing with two gears 37 and 38, (see Fig. 2). From the gear 37 motion is communicated to a sprocket wheel 39 connected by means of a remesa chain 40 with a sprocket 41 fast on av shaft 42 to which is made fast one of the beltsupporting pulleys 18.

it will be understood by an inspection of Fig. 2 of the drawing that the operating mechanism for each belt 16 is the same on both sides of the machine.

Motion is communicated to the chain conveyer 23 from the shaft 32 which carries a sprocket wheel 43 which is connected by a chain 44 in operative relation with the shaft 27 for operating the conveyer 23. As this mechanism is precisely the same as set, forth in my previous application, it is not considered necessary to explain the general construction of the machine in extreme detail, and for such detailed explanation, reference is made to the said application.

From the gear 38, which is mounted on a short shaft 45, reciprocating motion is coinmunicated to the knife 29 by means of a crank 46 connected with a shaft 45, and a pitman 47 connected with the said crank at one extremity, its opposite extremity being connected with the knife 29. The opposite extremity of this knife is connected with a spiral spring 49.

The mechanism for automatically regulating the position of the knife bythe upward movement of the beets will now be described. The bar 50 of the knife is supported by two arms 51 which are arranged on opposite sides of the topping memberl 52, which has a saw-tooth edge. These arms are slotted to receive the bar of the knife and their rear extremities are vertically adjust-I gles to its body portion as shown at 56, this4 bent end being ivotally connected as shown at 57 with a rigid arm 58 secured to the frame-work 19 as shown at 59.` The mechanism just described is duplicated on both sides of the two inner runs of the endless belts. Connected kwith each keeper 53 is the upper extremity of a rod 60 Whose lower extremity is pivotally connected, as shown at 61, with a member 62 of an angle bracket 63, the latter bein secured as shown at 64 to one of the paraFlel parts 2O of the frame 19. The bracket arms 62 extend inwardly from the parallel members 20 of the frame and approach the inner runs 21 of the belts quite'closely in order that the rods 60 may be 1n position to engage the shoulders of the beets on opposite sides of the tops as the beets are carried upwardly by the conveyers.

where they are connected with the keepers.

The upper extremties'of the rods are pivotally connected with the keepers while the stems 55 are' pivotally connected with, the lower extremities of the standards 58', as heretofore explained, hence as the rods 60 are arranged in the path of theshoulders of the beets as they are carried upwardly by the two conveyers, and in a position intermediate the conveyers, as the mets pass upwardly their shoulders will engage the rods and lift the latter, at the same time raising the knife whose plane has been properly adjusted with reference to the rods. Hence as the beets continue to move upwardly their tops are cut off at the same distance below the top of the shoulders that the knife is located below the rods; and since the arms 51 which engage the bar of the knife are vertically adjustable on the keepers, 'it will be understood that the to s of the beets may be removed in any desi shoulders. It will also be understood that the beets themselves, as they travel upwardly, serve V,to automatically regulate the osition of the knife for topping purposes. he knife-bar-engaging arms 5l are vertically adjustable on the keepers 53 by means of set bolts 66, or in any other suitable manner. From the foregoing description, the use and operation of my improved beet topper will be readily understood. As the machine is drawn across the field, the row of beets is uprooted by the plows 10, the foliage being simultaneously lifted by the devices l5. As the beets leave the plows, their tops are engaged by the inner runs 21 of the two belts, while the lower parts of their bodies are acted on by the chain conveyer 23, the two conveyers thus carrying the beets `upwardly, their bodies being supported in positions at rightan les to the planes of the conveyers travel. s the rods are pro rly arranged to engage the shoulders o the beets on opposite sides of their to or foliage, the beets will lift the rods w ereby the knife is brought into the proper plane for severing the tops. As soon as the topping function has been performed the beets are released by the chain conveyer and dropped downwardly' into a suitable receptacle 6T, While their tops are carried upwardly by the belt conveyer, and dropped upon a sort of apron 68 secured to the upper part of the `frame-work7 whereby the tops are ..dis-

plane below their' chine, and not allowed to interfere with any of the mechanism thereof.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

charged 'at the rear extremity of the ma?,

sor.

l. The combination of uprooting means, a

knife, means for ca to the knife for topping pur oses, and means for automatically regni) knife to bring it into position to remove tle top in a predetermined position with reference to the shoulder ofthe beet', said means comprising upright stems pivotally mounted, eepers vertically slidable on the stems and formingl a support for the knife, and rods extending forwardly from the keepers ating the` rrying the uprooted beets into thepath of the beets as the latter approach the knife.

2. The combination of uprootng means, a. knife, means for carrying the uprooted beets to the knife for topping purposes, means forantomatieally regulating the knife'to bring' it into position to remove the top in' a predetermined position with reference to.

the shoulder of the beet, said means comprising upright stems, ivotally mounted, keepers vertically slida le on the stems, a kni e support vertically adjustable on said keepers, and rods extending forwardly-'from the keepers into the ath of the beets, as the latter approach the 'fe.

3. In combination, a beet conveyer arranged to hold beets in a predetermined position, a slidable keeper, a support adjustable in said keeper, a knife mounted in said sup' port, and bearing rods adapted to be acted upon by the shoulders of the beets as the latter are moved by the conveyer for shifting the keeper to cause the knife to act upon the beets 'at the proper height.

4. In combination, a beet conveyer arranged to hold the beets in a predetermined position, slidable keepers, supports adjustable in said\k eepers, a reciprocating knife mounted in said su ports and bearing rods adapted to be act the beets as the latter are moved by the conveyer for shifting the keepers to cause the knifeto act upon the beets at the proper height. A In testimon whereof I aix my signature in presence o twowitnesses.

JOHN A. WEAVER. Witnesses:

SoLoN d. BoUcH'mN, v G'rro E. Heumen.

ico

on by the shoulders of los" 

